


The Jurassic Park Survivors' Club

by Merlin Missy (mtgat)



Category: Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Misses Clause Challenge, Survivor Guilt, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-25 15:50:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17124257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mtgat/pseuds/Merlin%20Missy
Summary: As the new park is being built, Kelly meets up with Lex and Tim.





	The Jurassic Park Survivors' Club

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/gifts).



Kelly received the letter a month before the new park was scheduled to open. She read it four times, her hands trembling on the paper. She'd been contacted before by hoaxers, by grifters, by paparazzi, and the attention was coming back thanks to the new park. Back in college, she'd been followed around campus by another student who was a true believer. His dorm room was filled with newspaper clippings, interviews, and his prize possession: the shot glass Eric Kirby had used when he'd followed Kirby to a bar in Chicago. Kelly had a restraining order put on the guy, and she'd had to switch schools.

This wasn't that guy. The letterhead could be faked, she knew. Alexandra Murphy didn't need to use an official letter from her late grandfather's estate to prove who she was. But Kelly trusted the letter.

Lex wanted to talk.

They'd only spoken once before. After Kelly had returned from Isla Sorna, she'd gone through a long debriefing with serious-looking men from the government. The USA might not have jurisdiction over the islands, but they had plenty of opinions about what American citizens who came back from them toting giant predators from the dawn of time. Lex had shown up while Kelly's dad was being interrogated, and sat with Kelly, chatting with her. Her own eyes had been wide, her voice not quite right, as she'd asked about the animals that had almost killed Kelly and her dad, and had killed so many people who'd gone with them.

When Kelly arrived at the restaurant, her instincts kicked in, warning her. The directions took her down a street the sailors used when they were in port looking for a good time, and stairs below the level of the sidewalk. This wasn't a nice venue with tablecloths and soft music. This was a dive.

"Hi," said Lex, who'd taken a table near the door. Kelly recognized her instantly, and the man beside her could only be her brother.

"Hi." There was a third chair at their table. Kelly took it and sat down. "You come here often?"

"Sometimes," said Tim. "The owner is a friend of the family. Nobody ever bothers us here, and if they say the 'd' word to either of us, they get kicked out."

Kelly smiled tightly. Following the incident, and for years after, she'd have given a lot to have a space where no one could say the word "dinosaur" to her. "I take it you're both spending a lot of time here lately?"

Lex said, "Enough. I'm glad you could come. The news has got to be bringing back a lot of bad memories." She took a sip of her drink, and the same wildness was in her eyes as had been almost twenty years ago.

"I try not to focus on the bad memories." A server came by the table, waiting for Lex to nod that it was all right to approach. Kelly said, "Just a soda, thanks. I have to drive."

Tim played with his glass. "We tried to invite Eric, but he's in jail."

"I heard. Breaking and entering one of the old InGen buildings." His arrest had caused a minor splash in the news, which had meant a new wave of phone calls from reporters. No, Kelly had never met him. No, she couldn't say what he was doing there with all those homemade explosives. Yes, she was glad Dr. Grant was testifying on his behalf but she hadn't met him, either.

"Could be worse," said Lex. "I've followed up with a number of the survivors of your expedition." Kelly had, too. Dad was all right. Sarah was all right. Dad wasn't well-off after the lawsuits but he'd made sure to pay for as much therapy as Kelly had needed to process everything that had happened. The rest who'd made it off the island alive with them hadn't gone home with their rockstar mathematician fathers who called every shrink in California to find the best one for PTSD, or had a mom who made sure every appointment was kept on time. The others hadn't processed, and now there were a lot fewer of them.

The server brought Kelly's soda. "I guess we're the lucky ones."

"To the Jurassic Park Survivors' Club," Tim said, tilting his glass to them. Kelly toasted with her drink, and Lex with hers, their hands touching and the clink of the glasses almost inaudible. She took a sip and made a face.

"Wrong drink?" Lex asked.

"Diet." Kelly pushed the glass aside. 

"I was asked to help with the security systems for the new park," said Lex. "They didn't want my help. They wanted my name on the project for PR."

"I was offered a tour of the opening," said Tim. "I didn't sleep for two days after the invitation came."

Kelly thought about her own invitation to the same tour. She'd said no as fast as she could, and at least she hadn't almost been eaten during the first opening of the previous park. "They don't think."

"No," Lex said. "And they don't listen. You know this is going to go bad."

"I know." And there wasn't anything they could do, not without going against the law like Eric had when the rumors started about the park re-opening. "I'm not going. I never want to go back."

"Amen," Tim said.

"I went," said Lex. "I wanted to see the system they were asking me to put my name on. Everything is so different. Modern."

Tim said, "Spared no expense." His sister shuddered.

They ordered dinner, and talked. Kelly got a Coke, not diet this time, and caught them up on how Dad was doing, where she was working now, normal things that didn't involve ancient monsters. Lex had her own software security firm. Tim was a novelist, and spent his life writing stories about lawyers. Kelly had kept up with the gymnastics until after college, and she'd taken her physics degree to a research lab that had nothing whatsoever to do with paleontology. As she told them about her life, the friendly looks and questions startled her, put her on the defensive. Too many people had asked her these same things. Except this was different. They weren't asking to get a piece of her for themselves. They were asking because they understood.

She hadn't been sure how tonight would go, and intentionally had made plans to follow. "Sorry," she said, texting Lex to exchange numbers and waiting for the beep on Lex's phone to confirm the message made it.

She hugged them both as she left even though Kelly wasn't much of a hugger. As they parted, she had the weirdest feeling she'd finally met the best friends she'd never known.

* * *

Kelly kept in touch with Lex and Tim. Lex said she'd sent a letter to Eric but he'd never written her back. They all saw the ads for the paradise vacations to Jurassic World, and that led to several group messages as they placed morbid bets on how long things would last this time.

Kelly got a Groupon offer for a Jurassic World all-inclusive package vacation in her inbox on an already bad day. She sat in the bathroom for half an hour, texting Lex and crying until she could breathe again.

When she got home that night, her heart jumped into her mouth at the sight of someone standing at her door, but it wasn't a reporter, wasn't the creep from college, it was only Lex, her blonde hair messy and her concerned smile nervous. She'd brought a six-pack of Cokes.

"I'll be fine," Kelly said.

"I know."

They went inside together, and Lex made dinner with what she found in Kelly's fridge, and they talked about anything except dinosaurs.

* * *

It took a couple of years before things went to hell. By that point, they had a place together. Lex's work could go anywhere she went. Kelly's work steadfastly avoided anything having to do with the park or with the past, and she stopped listening to the news. When she came home to Lex glaring at reporters at their door, she knew what must have happened.

"Ms. Malcolm!" shouted the most observant of the reporters. "Can you give us a statement about today's events at Jurassic World?"

She'd learned how to deal with them, said nothing, and pushed past them into her house. She closed the curtains while Lex called Tim. "No, don't come over. They're here, too. We'll meet you at Dad's tomorrow. Love you, too."

Kelly sat on their couch, and Lex sat next to her. "Do you want to watch TV?"

"No."

"Me either." Lex still had her phone, and she started scrolling through feeds. Every so often, she stopped and copied and pasted something.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for names for the next Survivors' Club meeting."

Kelly shivered. It was all coming back: all the terror in the rain, all the screams, all the death. A whole island of tourists were about to spend the rest of their lives reliving the same things. She looked at Lex, then she dug out her own phone and opened the first news site, scanning the articles for the names of their new friends.


End file.
